A few thoughts...

Posted by Rufus on 05/10

Okay, I don't see the mind req as being incredibly unbalancing, until you add in the fact that a single 2nd circle spell that costs less than 30 mana can decrease the fighting potential of a true warrior or sniper/thief to nearly 1/3 of their original power.

This falls along the same lines as blind, which, for a very small cost, is probably twice to three times as disarming as any level of skill in pkill.

I've thought about these problems a great deal, and I'm not sure exactly which road to take as a solution. Even a spell that decreased con, strength, dex, isn't as debilitating to the fight system as is one the decreases mind over the boundaries of skill qualifications. I'm pondering a couple solutions to this problem, and as soon as I have the chance to talk with Ea! and a few other coders over the situation, I'll post some of my ideas and see how they float.

As far as parry, I'd personally like to keep this as a skill that is available to all, perhaps making med/london hometowns better at it than ancient, but not completely taking it away, seeing as the arts of fencing were really given a boost in those time periods.

Again, I would just like to state, I don't think it's necessarily the mind req that's the problem, it is how easily so many skills are lost over a very very common spell.

-Ruf

From: Fleance Tuesday, May 05, 01:40AM

maybe a fencing skill, and an advanced fencing skill?

From: Agni Tuesday, May 05, 01:51AM

Of all the spells and skills, blind is the most unbalanced of all, as can be seen by the yanking of blinding vials and wormies. It should at least be moved to a 3rd circle spell (with cure blind moving up as well) or eliminated with the exception of blinding flash (which is a really cool spell due to its area effects).

Or, we could give it a bind-like twist so that mind comes into play AND a chance to simply randomly backfire. I think the same should be done to idiocy, as those spells are rather destructive to fighters.

However, with the recent downgrade (sure as hell fe like it) of tumble, fighter chars have become rather effective if not nearly as effective/more so than dedicated mage characters. Hadnt i unclanned my past clanned, i'd even go as far as to say that he'd be much more a force to be reckoned with than my current clanned (somehow, of course, tumble's effect -iveness dropped as soon as i changed pk chars, but i am not that egotistical to think that i caused the change ;)

Got a bit carried away, but the point i am trying to make is that sure, those spells are overpowered and leaves almost no option to fighters other than renting those effects out, but as mages are starting to become weaklings relying on spells to win (before they were just dex chars with tons of hps) i think the current system isn't truly that harsh to all fighter types.

I did notice tho, that perc chars are seriously suffering, and suggest that more bonuses be given to perc. Perc chars are roughly in the same boat as mages are in terms of stat balance (without the benefit of having spells) and receive benefits that depend on luck at best. It would be interesting to giva perc skill that's anti-choke/kick/elbow, with even greater bonus added to tumble, so they have more a chance to actually win without counting on snipes/paralyzes. As of now, snipers are probably one of the easiest char types to kill barring a snipe/paralyze. (especially for a 3rd cause).

Well, enough rambling.

Agni

From: Fleance Tuesday, May 05, 02:33AM

uhm sub fencing for parrying

From: Fleance Tuesday, May 05, 02:34AM

dont forget the weapons as well as the spell that lower mind.

From: Arsene Tuesday, May 05, 05:44AM

and backstabs are no longer lethal, nor staggers, people wake up too soon, and run and heal or just run, would be nice to at least have a chance of a kill on your skills that you sack so much for.

From: Rufus Tuesday, May 05, 05:35PM

As far as weapons that idiocy, it's calling the same spell. If we make a change to the spell, the weapons will also change.

-Ruf

From: Zak Wednesday, May 06, 12:11PM

thank you for trying to fix this :)

From: Erodic Thursday, May 07, 12:38AM

actually, changing blind to a third circle spell sounds like a great idea, since it's third circle mages that have to sacrifice the most to get their spells in the first place...

of course, then you'd have to deal with spell levels and the like for people and maybe that's not so good.

never mind.

From: Nomad Sunday, May 10, 10:57PM

Backstabs are no longer lethal? I think 10% damage is pretty effective for one special ... -ponder-

Nomad